Regarding the similarities or lack thereof with
Pokey the Penguin, Friendbear's
author has put an
faq on his site (http://www.friendbear.com/faq.html) that deals admirably with such suspicions. In said faq, he
states that Friendbear was
inspired by some stories that he wrote when he was
four years
old (which is especially
obvious in the first
comic or two of the series). That explains the distinctive
dialogue and dispels any possibility of
plagiarism from Pokey since Friendbear has been around longer in at least some form. The
art styles are similar in that they are both
MS Paint, but Friend Bear is entirely
cut-and-paste arrangements of just a few original drawings, while Pokey's creator has taken the more
work-
intensive route, drawing each comic from
scratch or at least using substantially less cut-and-paste. As far as the
relative level of humor found in each comic, that is a fairly subjective concept and one that is
irrelevant to their similarities.
Of course, no one can argue with the fact that Friendbear has failed to update for a damn long time, a fact which many agree gives Pokey the no-sense-making-webcomic crown by default.